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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252025">LDWS 2020</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorion/pseuds/sorion'>sorion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>James Bond (Craig movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, Drabble Collection, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:34:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252025</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorion/pseuds/sorion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><b>MI6 Café <a href="https://mi6-cafe.tumblr.com/tagged/last-drabble-writer-standing">"Last Drabble Writer Standing" challenge</a> 2020.</b><br/>I'll post them every week when they're being released by the mods.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Bond/Q</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Week One - 100 Seconds</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>Challenge:</b> image prompt, exactly 100 words<br/><b>Notes:</b> The countdown numbers in the story match the word count in reverse, because I was feeling smart XP (And then I missed the most glaring typo that thankfully didn't end up in the final version, and I felt less smart. Oops.)<br/>Also... it got second place! Woohoo! :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“One hundred seconds, 007,” Q says.</p><p>Bond knows. His reliable inner countdown always lets him know how close death is. Eighty seconds until he has to be off the empty German plane.</p><p>Sixty-eight seconds to not only outwit his personal death, but the death of everyone the crashing plane will kill in London.</p><p>Forty-seven to break the auto pilot, divert destiny from its path and the plane into the channel.</p><p>Thirty to grab a parachute, listen to the increasingly panicky voice in his ear.</p><p>“James! Fifteen seconds!”</p><p>Thirteen seconds for a jump and three words.</p><p>“I’m coming home.”</p><p>Two.</p><p>One.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Week Two - Tennyson</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Challenge:</b> exactly 200 words, angst, inspired by <i>'to strive, to seek, to find, but not to yield'</i></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <i>‘Tis better to have loved and lost<br/>Than never to have loved at all.</i>
</p>
<p>“What utter nonsense,” Bond said, drink in hand. It wasn’t his first. Nor his second.</p>
<p>If he could travel back in time, he’d choose not to love. Every time.</p>
<p>Love brought him nothing but betrayal and pain. How could loving and losing be better than never loving in the first place? He wouldn’t be blind to the inevitable betrayal (and death) without love.</p>
<p>Today’s reason for the drinks was that time travel didn’t exist, and Bond had once more been confronted with the frustrating fact that he couldn’t not love, time and again. Much as he would have liked to.</p>
<p>“Just how drunk are you?” someone asked, sidling up to his solitary spot at the bar.</p>
<p><i>‘Not drunk enough to purge you from my system,’</i> Bond thought. Despite his best efforts and iron will, he made the mistake of lifting his head, meeting questioning but undemanding eyes.</p>
<p>Reflected in those eyes, he found the truth that love was as much his constant companion as death. Neither weakness nor enemy, but the backbone of his very nature.</p>
<p>“Perhaps… <i>'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.</i>”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Tongue-Tied</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>300 words, dialogue only, inspired by the word "slip"</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“For the record, I do not approve of your course of action, 007.”</p>
<p>“Duly noted.”</p>
<p>“The only time you <i>duly</i> do anything, I would imagine.”</p>
<p>“Dearest Q, if your tone of voice had implied that you truly did not approve or, dare I say it, you were even worried for me, I would have done more than note duly.”</p>
<p>“Would you have noted aggressively?”</p>
<p>“At the very least, Quartermaster.”</p>
<p>“I’m less than impressed. Assailants are closing in, by the way, in case you hadn’t noticed. You also have a blind spot, your four o'clock.”</p>
<p>“I <i>had</i> noticed, thank you. Keep me updated on my blind spot, please. … … …”</p>
<p>“Bond! Report!”</p>
<p>“Just some unfriendly fire, no need to worry.”</p>
<p>“I was <i>not</i> worried. I asked you to report.”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>“You <i>will</i> take me seriously.”</p>
<p>“Always.”</p>
<p>“I’d make a note, but there’s activity in your blind spot.”</p>
<p>“…”</p>
<p>“Move straight ahead. Watch your left.”</p>
<p>“…”</p>
<p>“Take the stairs to the roof. I shut down all elevators.”</p>
<p>“How very inconvenient.”</p>
<p>“It’ll be more inconvenient if <i>they</i> shut them down with you inside one. I can take over controls, but even I can’t screw in a fuse remotely. And you don’t want them to get to the roof before you, do you?”</p>
<p>“…”</p>
<p>“Can I assume from your heavy breathing that you are heeding my advice for a change? … Don’t laugh and run.”</p>
<p>“Did you lock the door to the stairway behind me?”</p>
<p>“That goes without saying. They’ll break it down soon enough, no doubt… But not before you get to your airlift.”</p>
<p>“Smug little bastard, I love you.”</p>
<p>“…”</p>
<p>“… <i>Working</i> with you.”</p>
<p>“Slip of the tongue, 007?”</p>
<p>“Ah, well. The sneaking around was fun while it lasted.”</p>
<p>“… I’ll have you know that nobody here looks particularly surprised. Do stop laughing.”</p>
<p>“There’s my lift. Wait for me.”</p>
<p>“Always.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Live to Serve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Bond completes objectives. How he completes them is up to him.<br/><b>Warning: alludes to the current political climate in the US (and to a lesser degree the UK)</b></p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>exactly 400 words, using the phrase “we aim to please”</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bond barely batted an eye when his solitary corner of the bar he'd chosen was invaded by another patron with his own drink.</p>
<p>"Felix," he greeted him.</p>
<p>"James. What a surprise."</p>
<p>Bond's smirk widened. "Tell the truth. You knew I was in the States the moment I set foot on the ground."</p>
<p>Felix's lip twitched sardonically. "When you got on the plane to come here."</p>
<p>Bond chuckled.</p>
<p>"I've learned that it pays to keep track of your movements." He tilted his head to look at him and raised an eyebrow. "Just in case."</p>
<p>"I'd be insulted if I didn't do the same thing with you."</p>
<p>They grinned at each other wordlessly and returned to their drinks.</p>
<p>"So," Felix interrupted their companionable silence. "What brings you here?"</p>
<p>"Is that American for, <i>'What havoc can I expect you to wreak on my home turf'</i>?"</p>
<p>Felix pretended to consider that. "Sounds about right."</p>
<p>Bond's amused eyes wandered to the muted news on the television in the corner of the bar and darkened. "Not as much havoc as I'd like to wreak."</p>
<p>Felix followed his line of sight. "Tell me about it," he agreed. Then he straightened, cleared his throat, and added in a chatty tone, "What's your people's stance on overthrowing foreign governments, these days?"</p>
<p>Bond, fortunately, wasn't swallowing at that moment, or he would have choked on it. It still took all his not inconsiderable self-restraint to not laugh out loud. "Overthrowing governments of allies is sadly frowned upon." He pondered that for a second. "Yours?"</p>
<p>"Same." He leaned closer. "Any orders to such an effect, regardless?" he asked carefully.</p>
<p>Bond shook his head. "More's the pity. I live to serve, and I serve by completing objectives." He squinted at Felix. "<i>How</i> I complete them is my prerogative, however."</p>
<p>Felix nodded slowly, indicating that he was operating similarly.</p>
<p>"What I'd <i>like</i> to do," Bond continued, his lethal eyes on the news, "would be like trying to put out a fire with nitro-glycerine, so I was thinking something more subtle."</p>
<p>"Mhm..." Felix hummed, his voice thrumming with satisfaction. "Subtle is not quite your thing."</p>
<p>Bond's shark-like smile was all teeth. "I know a guy..."</p>
<p>"Smart, dark-haired, gorgeous, can kill from his bed in his pyjamas?" Felix guessed.</p>
<p>They shared a look like two bloodhounds catching a scent.</p>
<p>Felix held out his hand.</p>
<p>Bond took it.</p>
<p>"We live to serve. We aim to please."</p>
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